A Balanced Approach To Peace

October 13, 2005

Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency and winner with his agency of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, offered the most compelling reason for their selection: ``We can make the difference between war and peace.''

It is to the world's benefit that the emphasis remains on the latter. The danger of annihilation has never been more real than it is today, with the threat of nuclear arms spreading to unfriendly states and potentially available to terrorist groups. The U.N. agency is the right entity to monitor nuclear proliferation and make sure that a nation's development of nuclear power generation does not become a means for building weapons of mass destruction.

The agency's multilateral approach takes into account all viewpoints and relies on consensus, surely a more reasonable option than if left up to nations with varied and competing agendas.

Mr. ElBaradei's intelligence on nuclear matters has proved more reliable than Washington's. It was he, along with U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, who begged for more time to hunt for the WMD that the United States insisted were in Iraq. As the world now knows, Mr. ElBaradei was right. No evidence has been found that Iraq had a viable nuclear arms program.

The Cairo-born diplomat has often been at odds with the United States. The Bush administration bucked his reappointment to a third term as head of the U.N. agency, which was established during the Eisenhower years. Mr. ElBaradei's insistence on taking a more measured approach to Iran, feared by the United States to secretly be attempting to build a nuclear weapon, hasn't helped the relationship. But history shows he should be given the benefit of the doubt in handling negotiations. The United States has everything to gain from working with Mr. ElBaradei.

The peace prize goes to the person ``who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.'' Although the field was the largest ever, with 199 nominees, the Nobel committee chose wisely.